Positional power and political influence in the Federal Republic of Germany

Abstract. Methods of elite identification measure different aspects of power in societies. The relationship between the positional and the decisional methods was studied empirically, using data from a 1981 West German elite survey. In this survey, respondents determined through the positional method were asked to name their interaction partners for (political) issues in which they were actively involved. The results show that incumbency of an elite position is a crucial precondition for becoming politically influential. Only a small number of legislators, journalists, and academics who did not hold an elite position were mentioned as key influentials. The same data were also used to determine the denser part of the West German elite network which was made up of 559 core decision-makers. The sector composition of this elite circle underlines the intermediating role of political leaders and senior civil servants.     

The expenditure and revenue effects of defense spending in the Federal Republic of Germany

This article examines three questions. First, is there evidence of systematic defense tradeoffs in West German budgetary outputs? Second, exactly which programs - or types of program - have been the primary victims of tradeoffs? Finally, is there evidence that expenditure tradeoffs are avoided by raising taxes or reallocating tax burdens within the West German system of fiscal federalism? Evidence of expenditure tradeoffs is weak, but those that do occur seem to be based on the simplifying decision rules characteristic of complex organizational and political environments. Change in taxation is related to change in the defense burden, but the strength of the relationship is not overwhelming. The findings for the German case indicate a need to reevaluate the theoretical basis of tradeoff studies. They also suggest an agenda for comparative research on the tradeoff question.     

Educational Federalism in Germany: Foundations of Social Inequality in Education

This article applies Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to examine how sub-national education systems affect the extent of social inequality in education within the German federal states. Variations in educational outcomes between the federal states can be primarily attributed to the strict educational decentralization in Germany. We examine four conditions of regional education systems presumed to be relevant for the extent of social inequality in education: the availability of early childhood education, the development of all-day schools, the onset of tracking to different school types, and the degree of tripartition in secondary education. Altogether, we find systematic relationships between the variation of sub-national education systems and the extent of social inequality in education. The results indicate that well-developed early childhood education is necessary for a low degree of educational inequality. However, educational inequality is not directly related to partisan and socioeconomic determinants.     

论护国运动中的联邦主义

在护国军政府中,无论是欧事研究会,还是进步党和西南地方实力派,都有联邦主义诉求,这使得护国运动具有强烈的联邦主义色彩。联邦主义的出现,既有其一定的思想基础,又有浓厚的工具主义色彩。随着护国运动的结束,联邦主义逐渐沉寂。20世纪20年代初,在中国空前分裂的特殊格局下,联邦主义又演变为声势浩大的联省自治思潮和运动。     

Federalism and Party Democracy in West Germany

According to Gerhard Lehmbruch, there is a growing inconsistencyin West Germany between the principles of a federal polity andparty democracy, primarily because the former relies on bargaining,and the latter relies on majority rule as a mechanism of conflictregulation. However, comparative analyses have shown that federalismand party competition are not incompatible. Generally, federalstructures are neither detrimental nor conducive to the recruitmentfunction of parties. Competence and experience as a parliamentaryleader or as a specialist is the most essential preconditionfor advancement to national executive positions. The integrativecapacities of political parties may even be strengthened bythe federal division of power. Only in the area of the formulationand implementation of public policy may an inconsistency betweenthe federal system and party democracy arise because the strainon consensus-building inherent in German cooperative federalismmay, under specific conditions, prevent the national majorityparty from converting its programs into public policy.     

The Federalism Debate in the Transformation of Federal Habeas Corpus Law

Over the last several decades, the law governing access to federalhabeas corpus review has undergone a fundamental transformation,moving from a Warren Court approach that focused on individualrights to a Rehnquist Court approach that emphasizes deferenceto state courts. The enduring constitutional debate about thefederal system and the appropriate role of the federal courtsin that system has been at the heart of this transformation.This essay examines the leadership role of the U.S. SupremeCourt and the influence of other institutional actors, suchas the Congress, the executive, and the states, in the shapingof United States "constitutional dialogue" on this issue.     

Federalism and the Controversy Over the New Media in West Germany

The possibilities of expanding the television network by meansof cable and satellite service have paved the way for the Länderto determine relevant organizational structures. The newly completedState Media Treaty seems to represent a definite breakthroughin regulatory policy. The legal regulation of the new media—cableand satellite television—faces further complications,however, insofar as nine Land media laws impose different legalrequirements on the new broadcasters. Even so, differences amongthe Länder in the area of cable TV are no longer as greatas they were in the past, and a satellite agreement reachedby the Länder provides for more uniform regulation. Also,the Federal Constitutional Court's 1986 decision emphasizingthe importance of a uniform system of broadcasting and requiringdual private and public broadcasting may have settled the fundamentalpolitical dispute among the Länder over the new media.     

Split-voting in the Federal Republic of Germany: An analysis of the federal elections from 1953 to 1987

This article is about split-voting in the Federal Republic of Germany. Since 1953 each voter has had two votes. Although only the second vote is of importance for the distribution of the mandates, the voters increasingly make use of split-voting. The reasons for this increase of the split-vote are multiple: one being an expression of the rising need for participation. This split-vote' has nothing to do with the candidate of the electoral district, but very much with coalition preference. Considerable discrepancy between the first and the second vote can especially be observed among the Liberals. They profit from the fact that there is a widespread ignorance of the electoral system. The gains of the FDP are made at the expense of the current coalition partner.     

Background to Nigerian Federalism: Federal Features in the Colonial State

The origins of Nigeria's federalism lie not in the pluralitiesof economic and geographic regions or of ethnic nationalities,but in the plurality of colonial administrative traditions imposedby the British. Different administrative traditions were especiallyevident in the Northern and Southern Regions of Nigeria. Thesetraditions produced regional rivalry and conflict that wereentrenched in the Nigerian polity by the processes of consolidationand nation-building. After independence, this regional rivalrybecame the basis for triggering the conflicts between economicand ethnic areas present in Nigeria's federal system and forcreating more states in attempts to accommodate various groupinterests.     

Testing Federal Student-Aid Fungibility in Two Competing Versions of Federalism

This study employs twenty-three years of federal, state, andinstitutional student-aid data to investigate the effects offederal grants to students on the behavior of higher educationinstitutions. Unlike previous studies, this research differentiatesbetween federal-aid programs according to whether a federalprogram follows "redivision federalism" or "cooperative federalism"concepts. Pell grants, exemplifying the former, appear highlyfungible and inversely related to institutional grants to students,while campus-based federal programs, exemplifying "cooperativefederalism, " appear less fungible and positively associatedwith institutional grants. The results also suggest that grantsto students are more important to higher education opportunitythan indicated by some previous research.     

The determinants of structural changes in public budgets: a theoretical and empirical analysis for the Federal Republic of Germany

Abstract. Since there is no generally accepted and satisfactory theory that can explain structural changes in public budgets over time, this article focuses on the determinants of the budget structure and its changes over time. Thus, it would already be an improvement in the development of a complex and coherent theory of budgetary structures and its changes if initially appropriate variables could be identified which could explain in the short, intermediate and long runs the structural changes in public budgets with respect to the various governmental levels. Potential candidates for explaining structural changes could be socio-economic, political and institutional variables. These sets of variables will be analyzed here in detail for the Federal Republic of Germany for the time period 1964–1978. The results are very similar to those found in various U.S. studies. In comparably developed nations with similar political (federal) structures, institutional factors seem to play the dominant role in determining and explaining changes in the budgetary structure.